2006 Predictions: A Look Back

In my last post in 2005 I made 27 bold predictions for 2006. Some came true, some did not. Here's the rundown:

• Gasoline will be $4.00 per gallon. Nope. Gas got as high as $3.04/gallon (National Average 7/21/06)
• I will buy a car that runs on diesel/vegetable oil. Nope. The Sentra is still kickin'
• There will be no exit strategy for the war in Iraq. Unfortunately this is still the case.
• Andy Bakke will have sexual intercourse. Yep.
• News programs will have more coverage of Brad and Angelina than genocide, poverty, and AIDS in Africa, combined. Too hard to research. I'm going to say probably.
• I will break a bicycle rim. I did not.
• A famous cyclist will fail a drug test and deny he ever doped. Flandis!
• Ivan Basso will win the Giro. He did.
• Chris Horner will win a stage in the Tour. He won Stage 2 of the Tour of Romandie. Does that count?
• I will win a cyclocross race. I won 2 thank you very much.
• Lance will do all he can to stay in the media spotlight. NCY Marathon.
• George W. Bush will still be an asshole. "Hey Webb, how's your boy?"
• I will not shop at Wal-Mart. 13 months and counting.
• I will have a Colorado Paramedic License. Nope.
• Mary and I will buy a home. We did.
• The Mets will win the World Series. Close. NLCS with 2 bum pitchers.
• Federer will not win a grand slam. I was way off. Ausie Open champ. French finalist. Wimbledon champ. US Open champ.
• A record number of athletes will fail drug tests during the Turino Olympics. I don't think so. I only know of some Russian biathlete chick that tested positive for carphedon.
• Paris Hilton will die. Close. She got a DUI in September.
• Sampson will meet Vontoux. They did. Now they are BFF.
• A telemarketer from Calcutta will call and try to get me to consolidate my student loans. Hard to say if he was from Calcutta. This actually came true January 2nd.
• I will drop an F-bomb on said telemarketer. I did.
• A Canadian will contract bird flu. Surprisingly no.
• Right-winged yahoos will dismiss global warming. David Bellamy.
• Scott Johnson will spend a month on our futon, and train with me. He didn't. We did ride together once though.
• I will vomit from exertion. I didn't. I threw up in my mouth once during a 2 minute zone 5c interval though.
• Apple will come out with a ghetto blaster/boom box iPod. They did. It's called the iPod Hi-Fi.

16 out of 27 isn't too shabby. Coming soon is the 2007 predictions post.

Merry Christmas Everyone

I'm Dreaming of a Wet and Muddy Christmas?

Holy crap. I thought this was the Midwest. It's been (relatively) warm lately, and today it's raining. Not scary-to-drive-in freezing rain, just rain. There is no snow anywhere, and the grass is actually green. It feels like April.

Thankfully it's not April. I still have plenty of time to prepare myself for bike racing. There are several bike related off season projects to work on that don't involve countless hours on the trainer. The current project is removing the tufo tape from the Reynolds wheels. I'm going to glue them up right with patience and glue. The tape worked surprisingly well, but my gluing technique proved itself during cyclocross. Using actual glue will allow for easier tire changes and wheel truings since I can just peel the tire off, do my buisness, apply a fresh coat of glue, and slap the tire back on. After the holidays and Lane's wedding Brian and I are each building new wheelsets. Brian has extensive experience in wheel building, and knows what he's doing. I, on the other hand, do not. I will chronicle the adventure here on this blog.

In other cycling related news, Team Brown Bear is now accepting applications for its racing team! If you think you're worthy, and would like to be considered for one of the coveted roster spots, post a 500 word or less supplication here. Good luck everyone.

What does everyone want for Christmas? All I want for Christmas is Andy Bakke wearing bib shorts in a hotel room.

Practice

We talkin' about practice.

The Nuggets should be pretty formidible. I just really wanted to post this. I don't even really like basketball, this video though is just awesome.

Nationals

Alright everyone. Here is my requisite Cyclocross Nationals prediction post. The weather looks way too nice to race a national championship. 50's and sunny all weekend should make for a very fast course.

Trebon will distroy everyone in the Elite Men's race. 2nd-5th will be contested by defending champion Wells, Wicks, Johnson, and Powers. I don't what to guess what order.

In the Elite Women's race Katie Compton will pull a Trebon and slaughter everyone except one time Leedahl's Life commentator Christine Vardaros. Georga Gould will be thrid and I could care less about the other places.

Here's the web's first 2007 Cyclocross Nationals prediction. Brooks Leedahl, racing his first national championship race, will be lapped by Trebon et al. within the first 18 minutes.

Renault F1 Engine

Here's a video of Renault engineers doing a bench test of an old V10. They're running the engine through a simulated lap at Monza.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Hello all. I'm well in the swing of the offseason. The legs are hairy and getting creamy, as Andy would say. I'll start up training again after the holidays, which will give me about 3 months until road racing starts again in April. Mary is staying fit and will start training in earnest shortly. I think she'll be doing the 5 Star Tri Series next summer. A tri series with cash payouts. How sweet is that?

It's been pretty cold here in Madison lately. It's a nice change from the monotonous weather of Crescent City, but I'll let you know when the novelty wears off. Mary and I are taking a break from the cold though. Tomorrow we're leaving for Florida for a few days. The weather in Tampa is gorgeous right now. Mid 70's and sunny. I'm going to eat me some Cuban food. Heather, Brian, and Vontoux will be babysitting our house and Sampson while we're gone. Sampson doesn't care if it's bitterly cold or not. He just likes the sunshine.


I've added some goodies to the right. The "Blogs of Shame" section is for crappy blogs, blogs with weak posts, and blogs with infrequent posts. That means you Lane. Fear not if your blog shows up there. You can redeem your shameful blog by blogging better (pictures help.) Under the "Cycling Links" section I've added a link to The Broadband Racer. There's lots of sweet videos, and video blogs. Check it out.

Thats all for now. I'll try to keep my blog out of the Blogs of Shame.

More YouTube Fun

Take your protien pills and put your helmet on.

Rolling Stones - Start Me Up

The greatest music video. Ever.

WCA Cyclocross Race #8

Wisconsin and Midwest Cyclocross Championships, Angell Park Speedway, Sun Prairie, WI

Yesterday was the final race in the WCA series, and also the State and Midwest Championships, so all sorts of crazy racers showed up. The field was huge, maybe twice the normal amount. As Brian said in his report, they had call-ups for the top 10 which was nice. The start was crazy. I don't know how I didn't crash. People get crazy at these "big time" races. I don't understand why guys who know they'll finish in the bottom half of the results feel the need to try and fight for 10th wheel at the start. There were elbows flying and tires rubbing all over the place. I unfortunately had a lack luster start and had to fight my way back near the front. Sachs Boy and Masterson got the holeshot, and after only a few minutes had a 5 second gap on a second group containing myself, some Turin guy, and a few others. We bridged up, and Masterson drifted away. The Turin guy and I stayed with Sachs Boy. On lap 2 I began cramping in both quads whenever I really tried to put the power down. I ended up off the back, and the rest of the race I just tried to control the bleeding. Two more guys got around me, and I ended up 5th. The lungs felt fine, the legs just didn't want to go.

Here's the stats from the HRM:
Time: 45:04
Average HR: 196
Max HR: 201
Calories: 1007

The average and max heart rate are higher then normal, so I think I was slightly dehydrated. That could explain the cramping also. Who knows. It was a tough race with lots of full throttle sections and technical off camber turns with a few hard run-ups. The best designed course with the best facilities all year. Sachs Boy ended up 2nd overall, but 1st Wisconsinite, and State Champion, so hats off to him. We left early, so I'm not sure about the series overall. I think I won. Sachs Boy and I tied for season points, but ties are broken by the most finishes at the highest placing. We shall see.

Thanks to my parents for coming down to Madison for the weekend and seeing me race. Thanks to Heathrow and Vontoux for cheering, and thanks to my wife for the pictures.

Brian and I before the start


We don't have any more power, Captain


Sachs Boy givin'er


Mom and Dad trying to stave off hypothermia

Welcome

First, I'd like to start off this post to welcome all my new visitors. I've had 81 unique visitors to my blog so far today. Thats about 3 times this little blog's average. I hope everyone found my blog entertaining, and returns in the future.

Second, I'd like to explain "Sachs Boy" to Mr. David Greenblatt, as, I'd imagine, it would be quite disconcerting to stumble upon this blog. Sachs Boy is the antagonist in my race reports. I think race reports in general are boring, so to make them more interesting I play up the whole hero/villain thing. Sachs Boy is merely a character in this blog. You'll notice I never use your name in the reports as I try to keep a distiction between the character and the actual person. Anytime there were disparaging remarks I made sure your name was not mentioned, because I don't know you personally. As for why you were chosen to play the antagonist is twofold. 1. because our abilities are evenly matched and 2. your bicycle. I thought I had a nice cross bike, but holy crap. When I think of bicycle perfection, I immediately think of Bob Jackson, Richard Sachs, and Vanilla. Yours is the only Sachs I've seen in person. I don't doubt you got a deal on it used. There was a Sachs cross bike on ebay a couple months ago that went for a ridiculously low price that I would have snatched up had it been the right size. If I offended you, I'm sorry. I have no ill will or hatred or dislike for you. Sachs boy is simply a fun character in my blog. I've very much enjoyed racing against you and the two Trocadero guys. It has been a fun season and I'm looking forward to some good battles on Sunday.

Third, as for Mr./Mrs. Anonymous who somehow figured out my roadbikereview user name, well done Nancy Drew. I don't know how you did it. I would say I definately prefer my Dugasts, but you can't have a bunch of goobers rolling around on them. They would be less cool.

Dugast

I talk often on this blog about my Dugast 'cross tires. You guys must think, what's the big deal? They're only tires. Here is an excerpt from an article by importer Mark Hoskin who visited Andre Dugast at his workshop in March 2000:

"50kms south of Paris on the edge of the quiet town of Bouray-Sur-Juine is to be found the master of the tubular, Andre Dugast. The world is changing around him in his own lifetime, but he appears resigned in his sixty-second year. Since starting with Dourdoigne in 1952 and branching out on his own in 1974, just three years before Dourdoigne closed their doors forever, the victim of bankruptcy, cycling has grown and changed beyond all recognition. The two manufacturers of those times now both gone, Clement existing with only the name a tenuous link to the past and Dourdoigne only living in the memories of a shrinking number of cyclists. He has seen the rise and fall of all the modern champions, and made tubulars for most of them as well. Today's manufacturers find the path to his door, having him make tubulars with his own hands for their sponsored teams, many to be disguised as clinchers, or be converted by the words of marketing departments into the use of something else that is produced halfway around the world from France and sold to the public all over the world. It's work though, and with a craftsman's pride and satisfaction apparent it appears to be no problem. He knows what he does and it seems enough.

At the height of production in 1980 Dugast employed six people. Buying tread bands from the vast ranges of Wolber and Clement which were then fixed to his own casings in silk or cotton even this is under threat. Foxonall (nee Clement) has closed, the only ray of light that someone appears to have bought the moulds for the tread bands and wants to start their own production so this supply necessary for his Cyclo Cross tubulars may restart. Wolber closed, so his track and road tubulars with their tread bands are going to be extinct when his stocks run out leaving him with only Vittoria and Hutchinson to cajole into making products that they don't even want to sell under their own names. As a result the past year may have been the last year of the Dugast Cyclo Cross tubular. Nowadays he is receiving old tubulars from riders like Daniel Pontoni and carefully removing the tread bands and attaching them to new casings. Such is the faith riders still place in his skills and hands. With Veloflex only wanting to produce the simpler and easier clincher tires he may be the last person making tubulars in Western Europe for as long as he is willing to continue and can obtain supplies. It's not easy for a single person, making one hundred tubulars a week, to have today's big companies sell him anything. Even the ultra light latex tubes he uses may not be produced for much longer, he may be willing to continue, but may be driven into retirement by forces he cannot control.

His workshop, 10m x 10m square, is a museum of how things used to be in the old days of tire production. The only somewhat distant mirror now being Veloflex in Italy who employ five persons. The fax and radio are the only really modern intrusions. Even the wheels used while the glues set are old Mavic CX-18 and Wolber rims attached to old Simplex and Mavic hubs. Custom produced cloth arrives for the casings, chafing strips and base tapes, to be skillfully combined from start to finish by Andre Dugast's hands. Endless bands of cloth are cut to the correct width, have their edges turned over and finely sewn on an old machine and then the tube is placed inside and the chafing strip sewn in place. Later the base tape is glued on, and then the tread band is glued in place to then hang on the wheel from the ceiling to cure. Some tubulars hanging currently are made specifically for Paris-Roubaix, and will afterwards be consigned to training or other lesser purposes by the team who they are being made for. He is just finishing off the French track teams tubulars for the Olympic Games, more normal production for sale under his own name will then occupy him for the summer. If he is forced into stopping for lack of supply or retires then the last painter of a dying art will vanish, living on only in the memories of those fortunate enough to have experienced the joy of riding a tubular made by Andre Dugast."

Here's another description from Echelon Imports:

"Andre Dugast has been producing the finest tubular tires in the world since 1952. He started with the Dourdoigne firm in 1952 and branched out on his own in 1974. He has seen cycling change over the years, yet has produced tires for the greatest cyclists in the world throughout his career. Rumors abound that upwards of 80% of all Olympic cycling medals since the 1980 Moscow games have been won on Dugast tubular tires. Lance Armstrong has won all six of his Tours on Hutchinson commissioned Dugast tubulars. Dugast tires are also the winningest tubulars on both the cyclocross circuit and on the velodrome.

With the majority of tubular tires being produced in Asia by machines, Dugast has continued to supply the pro peloton with hand-made silk and cotton tubular tires. Andre Dugast buys the tread bands from a variety of tire manufacturers which are then fixed to his own casings in either silk or cotton."

Andre sold his business a few years back to Richard Neuhaus (Richard Groendaal's mechanic.) Andre stayed on to train Neuhaus in the art before retiring.

WCA Cyclocross Race #7

Janesville Cyclocross, Gibbs Lake Country Park, Fulton, WI

A rare Saturday only cross race. It snowed like a mother yesterday, so the race promised to be a sloppy muck fest. I planned to drive down to Janesville with Brian, but he became a eunuch, and apparently cyclocross racing is frowned upon, so he didn't go. It was nice and sunny when I left this morning, and the snow had already started to melt. It was crazy cold though. So I got to the venue and did all the normal pre race stuff that you guys don't want to hear about. I warmed up, and cooled back off before we started racing. My poor fingers and toes were ready to fall off.

The course was insanely muddy. Not clumpy, loamy mud, but thin, Hershey's Syrup mud. There were some barriers, long fast sections, slow hairpin corners, a beach/lake running section, and a LONG climb. The laps were really long, well over 15 minutes when I did my reconnaissance. The cat 4's were doing them in 12 minutes during their race. They had call-ups based on WCA points, so I had a perfect start position (they only allowed 5 riders on the front row.)

I started pretty slow and conservatively, and sat 5th or 6th wheel for the opening section of the lap. Once things calmed down and the race sorted itself out, I was in a chase group containing the same 3 other guys as last week. There was a dude dangling off the front about 5 seconds. Our little chase group was moving so slowly, that at the beginning of the second lap I put in a big acceleration and bridged up to the leader. He was wheezing and ready to die, so I just left him and drilled it the rest of lap 2. At the start of lap 3 I saw the lap counter and it said 2 to go, so I kept it pegged as long as I could. I was hurting climbing the hill on the thrid lap, but had a 10 second advantage. I tried to maintain my advantage, but a chase group of 3 clawed back 5 seconds. I was so cooked by the time I hit the hill on the last lap that I had to dismount and run the top section. It was all good though as my 5 second buffer turned to 10 seconds. Haley put in a major effort and clawed back a bunch of time, but it was too late and I soloed in for the win with Haley outsprinting 2 other dudes. Masterson dropped out and Sachs Boy came in out of the money in 5th. I also won the prime and a sweet trophy.

Here's the stats.

Time: 40:22

Average HR: 193

Max HR: 198

Calories: 991

No action shots today, as I was alone, but I took some pics of the carnage when I came home. Everything is covered in mucky guck.

What The!?

Yesterday I went for a bike ride in 65 degree sunshine. Today, not so much.

Tomorrow is race 7 of 8 in the WCA cyclocross series outside of Janesville. It should be a sloppy one. I did alright at the last sloppy one. Look for a race report sometime Sunday.

Slowhand

Seriously, how awesome is Clapton?

Vote!

Do it. Do it.

WCA Cyclocorss Race #6

Milwaukee Cyclocross, Estabrook Park, Milwaukee, WI

It was nice and sunny today with temps in the 50's for the race. The course was fast and dry with lots of pavement and fast grass sections. There was some nice slow chicanes and some tricky singletrack thrown in for good measure. There was 2 sets of barriers, and a short, steep run-up. The laps were fairly short, about 5 minutes long.

Brian and I both had front row starts that neither of us took advantage of. We didn't anticipate the start and we were slow getting off the line. When we finally got going, we were sqweezed into each other and rubbed shoulders. No harm, no foul. I made my way to the front group with brian right behind. I put in a little acceleration and made my way to the front before we entered the singletrack. I was riding a nice hard tempo, but was well within my comfort zone. No one wanted to work, and it was "groupo compacto" for the first 4 laps or so with the top 8 or so guys in points. I stayed at the front and dictated pace. About 20 minutes in, attacks started which whittled the group down to the top 4 riders in the series. The pace was pretty high at this point, but no one wanted to really go for it. We stayed together until the last lap. There were attacks and counter attacks, but no one got away. I made my move after the last set of barriers leading into a section of slow speed chicanes. I went for it here because I was much faster through the slow stuff than the others, and only had a straight-away after the chicanes. I came up on the corner too hot, and lost the front wheel in the loose dirt and went down. Hard. There was a massive pile up which Sach's Boy was able to avoid for the win. I came in third, humiliated, with a bent brake lever and bloody shin. Oops.

I was cursed at, and yelled at, and called bad names, but that's racing. It was a good move, I just lost it on some loose dirt. Victory would have been mine had I executed the corner properly. I don't think I could have won had it come down to a sprint, since I've never been in one. The legs felt great though. I apologized after the race, but I'm still the guy that caused the wreck. I don't want to be that guy. Brian had a good race, coming home in 7th.

Back down to second place in the series, Sach's Boy 5 points in front, with 3rd only 9 points behind me. The next 2 races should be quite interesting.

Here's some estimated stats from the HRM (I'm too lazy to go get the monitor. They're always roughly the same anyway.)
Time: 39 minutes
Average HR: low 190's
Max HR: high 190's
Calories: 800ish

Thanks to Heather for the cheerleading. Heather made the announcement before today's race that she started her off season yesterday. Mary couldn't make the trip today, so no pictures. Brian should have some in his race report, also check out Madcross.org for pictures and video highlights.

Superdog

Here is a picture of Sampson from Halloween. Vontoux came over and the dog boys enjoyed trick-or-treating together.

Tomorrow is the 6th WCA cyclocross race. It's agian in Milwaukee. The forecast for today is rain, but it hasn't rained yet, and it doesn't look like its going to. If the course is dry and fast I'll probably get my ass kicked again. I hope I can hold on to my series lead. I'll be rockin' the white handlebar tape like a bad ass mofo.

Cyclocross Perversion

Here's a link if you don't know what I'm talking about. Nice tires, by the way, Radomir.

WCA Cyclocross Race #5

VeloTrocadero Halloween Classic, Washington Park, Milwaukee, WI

Are you guys ready for another race report? Probably not, but you're getting one anyway. It was a beautiful day today, sunny and about 50 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Apparently nobody told Sampson about the time change, so instead of waking me up at 7, he woke me at 6. Thats cool though, I ate breakfast and took my time before venturing to Milwaukee. The race was at an awesome city park. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed New York's Central Park.

The course was, in my opinion, exactly what a 'cross course should be, mostly mowed grass with some pavement. There was a large, open start area that led into a sharp right-hander up a steep hill and back down, lots of fast, sweeping corners, a section of high-speed barriers, some off-camber turns, a run-up with barriers, and a fast paved road section. It wasn't really a course that suits my strengths, as there was lots of fast, power sections, and I'm not very powerful. There were some sections where I was really able to get in a nice rhythm though.

Brian and I lingered around the start line and watched Heather finish her race. She raced really well, and had a nice photo-finish sprint with another girl. The start line was nice and wide, so there was really no bad starting spots. Brian had a really good start and was second wheel. My start wasn't so good, but I passed a bunch of guys on the steep hill, and was 5th wheel for the first half of lap 1. I moved up and passed Brian, but the leader was already gone. He had a 12 second lead after the first lap that grew to 40 seconds after lap 3. After that people didn't even give me time splits I was getting my ass kicked that much. There was a big gap (10 seconds) back to 3rd place, so I just tried to keep everyone else behind me, which I did. So second place points for me. Brian dropped a group of 4 he was in right before the finish.

Stats from the Polar S520:
Time: 38:18
Average HR: 191
Max HR: 197
Calories: 793

The wifey had to work today, so no pictures. Sorry. Here's one of Sven Nys though. He's faster than I am anyway.


Nice tires Sven.

New Glarus Limited/Seasonal Beers: Part 1

This post series is mostly for the readers that actually drink good beer and have access to New Glarus beer. Which is pretty much only my In-laws. The rest of you people can read on and be envious. Here's the review.

New Glarus Brewing Co. Unplugged: Enigma

Here is what New Glarus says about the Unplugged series:

"A few times a year, we will cut Dan loose to brew whatever he chooses, uncensored, uncut, unplugged. Always handcrafted, the bottle you hold is brewed for the adventurous soul. This is a very limited edition and we make no promises to ever brew this style again."

I'm an adventurous soul, and I also very much like beer, so I was intrugued. Here is what New Glarus says about Enigma:

"A Complex and intriguing original. The mystery began with wild yeast spontaneously fermenting a rich treasure of malted barley and whole cherries. Unlined oak casks breathe deep vanilla hues and chords of smoke into this sour brown ale. Our Master Brewer has forged a smooth garnet tapestry that defies
description. Wander off the beathen path."

The first thing I noticed when I opened the bottle was the intense yeasty smell. It almost smells like the beer isn't ready to be bottled, like it is still fermenting. The smell is glorious. My novice palate smelled apple cider with cinnamon and nutmeg, but it must be the cherry. The color is a nice medium brown. It's very cloudy, like an unfiltered wheat beer, but much darker in color. The beer tastes sweet with a quite sour finish, and makes a very good seasonal beer in the fall, as it's flavor is reminiscent of apple cider, so much so, that it might actually taste good hot. Its a much more complex flavor though, then your run-of-the-mill hard cider. Enigma lingers in the mouth long after swallowing, and as the name suggests, it wants you to decipher its complex layers of flavor.

It's pretty tasty. I give it a thumbs up. You wouldn't be able to have too many of them though, as they're pretty intense.

Look for Part 2: "Copper Kettle Weiss" next week sometime.

In The Works

Check it out. I'm in second place in the WCA standings, only 5 points behind Sachs Boy. Maybe I'll overtake him on Sunday.

Also, stop by the Team Brown Bear site the next few days as there is some interesting projects we're working on.

This picture is during the race in Whitewater last Saturday. I look pleasant.

Stolen from Madcross.org

Not Suck

Alright gang, here's the race reports from this weekend's races.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #3
Whitewater Trash Dash, Whitewater WI

I'm sure some of my faithful readers saw the quick recap of Saturday's fiasco already. It rained Friday night, so mud was expected, and desired. What wasn't expected was the race venue. Lets just say that for various reasons, capped landfills don't like lots of rain or bike racers. Brian and I were walking around when we first got there, and it felt like walking on a waterbed. The weather was perfect, around 45, overcast, and no rain.

Brian and I had front row starts, and entered the race course around 5th or 6th place. I moved up nicely the first lap and was second wheel after lap 1. I stayed more or less in the front group for the second lap, but just kept moving back after that. I couldn't find a good line through the mud, and could never get in a rhythm. I had only one gear as all the others were so packed with mud that the deraileur couldn't move. So that was that. After the race I noticed that if I tried to spin my front wheel with my hand, it would immediately come to a stop from all the mud and grass. I ended up in 9th position, which wasn't quite as bad as I thought, but still not good for series points. Brian had a rough go of it, and wisely dropped out after the first few laps.

Here's some stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 42:04
Average Heart Rate: 192
Max Heart Rate: 197

After the race, Brian and I went to the car wash and blasted all the decomposing diapers off our bikes. That worked really well. I recomend it if you bike ever triples in weight from mud.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #4
Cam-Rock Cyclocross, Cambridge, WI

It snowed Saturday evening, and not just melt-instantly-on-the-ground-snow, but still-on-the-ground-in-the-shade-24-hours-later-snow. So again it was going to be muddy, but unlike the landfill, Cam-Rock Park has had 4.5 billion years to figure out drainage. Sunday's weather was sunny, but bitterly cold. The course was mostly singletrack with tacky mud, or 1-2 inch greasy peanut butter mud.

Brian and I got to the start about 2 seconds too late, and ended up in the back. Shitty. I think I was in last place entering the singletrack. When you got offline the course was so greasy it made passing difficult. Anyway, I slipped and slid my way to the front group of 4 about half way through the first lap. I stayed at the back of the group for a quarter of a lap, and moved to the front. Being at the front is much easier as you can see the entire trail, and pick and choose the lines that are best, instead of just following the guy in front of you. I upped the pace at the front, and Sachs Boy (who, I imagine, will be blogged about in the future, as he is a major a-hole) was the only one that could hang. He pimped me at the start/finish line on lap 1 for the beer prime, but I attacked early on lap 2 and dropped him easily. I rode off the front with a very comfortable lead the rest of the race for my first win. Yay!

There was actually a bike wash at this race, so instead of cooling off and putting on warm clothes, I went and hosed off my bike. Then I noticed they had free beer, so I drank some ice cold beer, so needless to say, the 40 minute sweat fest+the water hose+the cold liquid in my gut+the vasodilation from the alcohol made me mildly hypothermic. Heathrow was getting a kick out of watching me shiver violently causing me to spill my beer. After the beer I went and sat by the fire and drank hot apple cider and eventually became normothermic.

HRM stats:

Excercise Time: 41:04

Average Heart Rate: 191

Max Heart Rate: 196

Calories Burned: 858

Another big thanks to my wifey for being my water girl/photographer.

Suck

Quick results:

Brian: DNF
Brooks: ~15ish

To say it was muddy would be a gross understatement.

Bloggy Blog Blog

Hi gang. I just came across this and thought I'd share it here.

WCA cyclocross races 3 and 4 this weekend. I'll probably have results and a brief report Saturday night, and a full rundown of the weekend's racing Sunday sometime.

Chicks Dig 'Em

You know you want one.

Boonen got the prototype

Peektors

Here are some pics from yesterday's race.

Heather before the suffering. Next time she won't have that smile on her face.

Heather on the hairpin. This corner was cool. You came into it flying down a hill, had to brake hard for the corner, and accelerate like Fernando Alonso out of it. It was one of the few cyclocross elements in the course.

Brian on the same corner. He looks like he knows what he's doing.

The author on the corner. I hardly needed brakes with the Dugasts. They are truly amazing.

There are more photos at Madcross.org. Check them out.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #2

Moe's Burrito Cross, Lapham Peak State Park, Delafield, WI

Preface: Lapham Peak State Park is a really cool park with tons of mountain bike, and cross country ski trails, rolling hills and forests. They have a snow making machine for xc skiing and a nice little hut to keep skiers warm. They have (weekly?) ski races in the winter, and its only about 50 minutes from home. For all this nice stuff, they charge you $7 to enter the park, and another $4 for a trail pass. This is on top of the $20 entry fee for racing. There is only one toilet in the only men's bathroom, and no toilet paper, just paper towels. Spectating was crappy as there was a half mile walk from the parking lot, across a major highway, to the start/finish line. It was hard to see multiple sections of the course from one vantage point due to the course being on single/double track mountain bike trails. Cyclocross races are not supposed to be run on mountain bike trails. That is why they have mountain bike races. So the venue is awesome, just not for cyclocross races. Enough whining, now on with the race report.

Like I said, the start line was like a half mile from the car, so if you used the car as your "base," you never really knew what was going on with the racing. Are they running on time, or are they behind schedule? Are racers lining up for the start? Who knew. Brian and I managed to get one practice lap in before watching the start of Heather's bike racing debut.

The lap was basically long, flat power sections with some very slow speed chicanes thrown in to break things up. Not technical at all, with one very long run-up, and another double barrier section. Surfaces ranged from tacky, loamy dirt to gravel and a little grass. No pavement, sand, or mud, no off-camber techy stuff. The laps were long, almost 8 minutes. A poorly designed cyclocross course, in my opinion.

Brian and I got our spare wheels in the pits, and went to warm up on the trainers. With start position being critical, and the cars so far from the start line, we were worried we'd warm up too long, and miss the line up. So with absolutely no warm up at all, not one pedal stroke on the trainers, we made our way to the start line. It was a good call since there was already all sorts of dudes waiting for the perfect start position, which Brian and I got, by the way.

So we start, and I have the reluctant hole shot without any effort at all. Brain got screwed over at the start by some Polish dude. I used the first lap as my warm up and never really gave it 100% the first lap. The second placed rider said we had a gap, and I looked back and we already had 10 seconds or so on the chase group which contained Brian and some other dudes, one dude being a dip shit on a Richard Sachs Signature team bike. The cycling gods smited this unfortunate soul when he crashed hard whilst cutting the course. Brian later said he could have ran over his bicycle, and ruin his essentially priceless bike. So the second placed rider never pulled through, and I lead the first lap and a half until he made his move and attacked in a power section before the run-up. I stayed with him for a while, but I was unable to match his pace and he gapped me. I rode around by myself for a half lap until another rider bridged up to me. He immediately pulled through, and we rode a nice tempo for the next few laps, with the first placed rider dangling about 10 seconds up the course. We were never able to reel him in, however. I had a little day dream moment and drifted off the back of our little two man group. With about one lap to go the second placed rider hovering about 5 seconds ahead of me, I wasn't able to close the gap, and had to settle for third. Not too bad placing wise, but its annoying knowing I was definately strong enough for second place if I hadn't lost focus. The dude that won was really strong, he was 3rd at the first race. It will be hard to win if he's around.

Effort wise, it wasn't near as anaerobic as a cross race should be. More steady-state type efforts, and this is reflected in the stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 38:32
Average Heart Rate: 191
Max Heart Rate: 198
Calories Burned: 810

A big thanks again to my wifey for water hand-ups. Blogger is being retarded, so pictures will come later.

I Got Nothin'

Alright turd burglars. I haven't blogged about anything interesting for a while, so why change now. This ones gonna be pretty boring.

Monday Brian and I had a productive (hard) cross practice. Doing hard intervals wrecks me for the next 24 hours. Every muscle in my body is fatigued, but I can never sleep, and when I do finally fall asleep its low-quality-wake-in-the-middle-of-the-night-soaking-wet-with-sweat-sleep. I usually feel pretty good the next day though. And I know it makes me faster. So what did I do today? More intervals. Slightly less intense, and inside on the trainer.

Its been pretty cold here lately, it even "snowed" here a little today. I haven't experienced temps in the 30's for a few years. I'm really excited about cross-country skiing. I've decided I'm going to race this winter. I know absolutely nothing about xc skis, let alone ski racing, so it should be pretty interesting.

Speaking of racing, Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! High flying monster truck action comes to Lapham Peak State Park! Witness robosaurus breathe fire and eat cars! You'll pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge! No, silly, the next cross race is there. Its sponsored by some burrito place, so I better at least win a frickin' burrito.

Team Brown Bear

Check out the Team Brown Bear website. I designed a t-shirt!

Post 101 (seriously)

One hundred and one posts on Leedahl's Life. Thats a lot. Not too much new over here. Today I went old school and bought an antenna so we can watch tv. We've just been watching movies, but I hate 99% of movies, and would rather watch fuzzy PBS. I'm intimidated by this archaic contraption, so I haven't yet installed it. The antenna box said it was good for HDTV. Who in the hell would own an HDTV and use an antenna?

Sampson is finally understanding his invisible fence. I cranked the "static correction" way up, and now he doesn't even think about getting close to the boundry. He runs laps around the yard while I practice my cyclocross skills. I built some cyclocross barriers a while back and have them set up in the back yard (have I blogged about them before?) They're pretty sweet. I'm not sure what the neighbors think of some dude cruising around his yard in lycra jumping over hunks of plywood though. I don't care, they're all very old.

I've added some new links. Race.cx is about cyclocross racing and culture. There are some sweet videos and interviews and whatnot. Intelligensia Coffee is the best coffee I've ever had. You can order it from their website. Lastly, there is an infant cycling team in Wisconsin with an equally infant website. Team Brown Bear might be the laughing stock of the WCA with their sweet brown jerseys. Check often for race recaps, bike features, and your very own chance to own some offical Team Brown Bear goodies.

WCA Cyclocross Series Race #1

Badger Cross, Badger Pairie County Park, Verona, WI

As the title implies, yesterday was the first Wisconsin cross race of the year. Brian and I stuffed the car full of wheels, Gatorade, and trainers for the arduous, 20 minute journey to Verona. It was a beautiful indian summer day with highs in the mid 70's. We registered and watched the start of the beginner's race. We got the bikes ready, pooped, and rode 2 laps of the course.

The course started on a long paved road with a tight right-hand turn onto grass with a set of 3 barriers and a hairpin turn around a tree, all within a couple hundred meters from the start, so start line position was cruical. The course narrowed into a double-track, gravel climb, and descended with some good tight turns to a beach volleyball court with very soft, deep sand, and a 180 degree turn directly after the sand that required a dismount and a run back through the sand. The bike did not like the sand in the drivetrain, and shifted poorly for a while. After the sand pit, the couse meandered around and came to a fairly short, not too steep run-up. This section very closely mimicked the run-up at Brian's practice course, so did not pose too big a problem. After the run-up there was a short paved road section and a fast double-track descent with a tricky, loose left-hander at the bottom. The rest of the lap consisted of short, straight, grass sections with tight corners between them. The lap ended with the long gradual uphill paved road where we started, and ended after the 90 degree right hander, before the barriers.

We warmed-up on the trainers and Heather, Mary, and the Spectating World Champion (Mary's Mom) found us. My warm-up felt a little short, but I was able to get in some good efforts none the less. Brian and I lingered around the start line and both snagged front row spots.

The start went well, and I found myself second wheel coming into the barrier section. A guy passed me around the hairpin, and Brian was right behind me in 4th. On the gravel climb, Brian drilled it and bridged up to the leaders. I was suffering pretty hard, and dangled off the back. I got into a rhythm near the end of the first lap, and started feeling (relatively) comfortable. The two leaders had again gapped us again. I pulled through, in front of Brian, through the sweepy descent to the sand pit. After the run-up I looked back and saw no one, so I just rode my own race. I never saw the 2 leaders, and found myself in a 4 man group. I was able to ride the sweepy corners much faster then my companions, but they would catch me on the road sections, or the gravel climb. I fell once in the sand pit, but somehow it was faster then everyone else in the group, so no matter. A guy riding a cannondale with an SRM and Mavic carbone pros passed me on the run up and gapped me immediately. A lap later at the bottom of a hill, I saw the same guy pulling his bike out of the tall grass, way far from the course, like he totally missed the corner. His bike was f'ed up and I'm not sure what happened to him after that. Somewhere 2 guys snuck away, and I ended up 5th. Not too shabby.

The winner was a 35+ singlespeeder, and second place was also 35+. So third place in Cat 3, 35 and under, which means I won some cash and who knows what else. I wasn't around for the awards ceremony so maybe they'll send it to me. WCA only recognizes Cat 3, and not age groups, so I got 5th place points for the series. It's too bad since 3rd place is worth 20 points, and 5th is worth 14.

A big thanks to my wife for being my water girl. My mouth was like the sahara for a while. Thanks to Karen for coming up for the weekend to spectate. The bike worked flawlessly. I used a 42 tooth ring up front, and a 12-25 cassette and was never in the 25. I was thinking I wanted a 12-27 cassette for cyclocross, but now I don't think I do. The Challenge Grifos were awesome, and I never lost traction at 40 psi.

Here are the stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 46:02
Average Heart Rate: 197
Max Heart Rate: 203
Calories Burned: 1048

Brian should have a recap of the race on his blog shortly.

Before the start.

Yours truly over the barriers.


Brian on the run-up.


Hey Deb, could you take a photo of me on the horse real quick?

Blood Lung

Last weekend I "attempted" my first cross race of the year. I crashed hard early in the race on Saturday and landed on my back. My back didn't immediately hurt, but as the race went on, my back became progessively more sore, and would spasm whenever I really powered on the pedals. I drifted off the back of the race and called it quits after 25 minutes. The fitness felt fine, and I would have done alright. So thats that. Saturday night the back was quite sore, so I decided it was not wise to race on Sunday. Not a good start to the season. It was nice to get back home and see the parents though. This Sunday brings the first Wisconsin cyclocross race of the season, so hopefully things go better there. Brian and I practiced on his course last night, the back felt fine, and the legs and lungs felt good. I had a serious case of "blood lung" afterwards though. Do you guys know blood lung? It sucks.

Here's some pictures compliments of Rick Mangan.

Cross Practice, Tubular Headaches, Gordon Lightfoot

Hello, hello my little droogies. Brian made a great cyclocross practice course in a park near his house. The course has it all: fast grass sections, tight corners, high speed corners, bridges, pavement, and a bitch of a run-up. We've been practicing on it a couple times preparing for this fall's races. Things seem to be going really well. I feel strong, and my remount technique is miles ahead of what it was last season. We'll see how everything goes this weekend.

So, I was testing out the race wheels before this weekend, to make sure everything was in order, and I was running really low pressure in the rear tire, probably somewhere around 20-25 psi. There is a small concrete lip between the ground and a foot bridge on Brian's cross course that I managed to whack pretty hard with said rear tire. The tire went flat almost instantly. Shitty. The carcass of the tire is undamaged, I just pinch-flatted the inner tube. The bad news is I have never repaired a tubular, and only vaguely know how. The good news is the glue bond was very, very strong, and I no longer have a fear of rolling a tire after trying for around an hour to pry off the tire from the rim. The better news is a shop in town, Yellow Jersey, is owned by an old-schooler who has repaired hundreds of tubulars. He was reluctant at first, but I told him the tire was a Dugast, and he was willing to do it. I won't have the tire in time for this weekend's races though. I've put Yellow Jersey in the coveted "Cycling Links" section. Check out the website, its crazy.

At least this didn't happen.

Brian and I went to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert tonight. It was awesome. Gord's band is so good, and the little stories he told between songs were delightful. He apparently had a stroke on Friday, and is now unable to use his second, third, and forth digits of his right hand. So he would just strum away on his guitar while another dude would play the actual notes. It was really cool to see him in such an intimate venue. It was like "VH1 Storytellers."

Election Results

The public spoke and chose pink handlebar tape. Ah, but that was the popular vote. With the electoral college, orange was declared the winner. Pink is appealing the decision. Thanks everyone for voting.

Rock the Vote!

With the big mid-term election coming up, and the thought of the Dems gaining control of congress, I'm all giddy to have a little election of my own. Here is your chance to make a real change in this world...by voting for what handlebar tape color I'll run on my steed this cyclocross season!

Here are the color options:

Black, Blue, Red, White, Yellow, Pink, Lymon, Mint, Aegean Blue, Crystal Blue, Purple, Serious Pink, Lunar Orange, Iris, Melon, Crystal Pink, Carbon, Black/White zebra, Black/Yellow marble, Black/Gray marble, Black/Red marble, Black/White marble
Your guess is as good as mine as to what those colors actually look like.

This one is "Lunar Orange"

Vote early, vote often. I'll run whatever hideous color you guys choose. Every few races there will be another opprotunity to humiliate me, unless I get laughed at too much and my fragile psyche can't handle it any longer, or it gets lame and nobody votes.

Sampson is outraged with the plain black handlebar tape, and calls for its impeachment.

Good Luck to all the candidates. We will not be using Diebolds -just cast your vote in the comments section. In case of a tie, we'll let Florida and Ohio decide. I'll post pictures of the democratically elected handlebar tape in full race action.

Jan?

Oh no! Not you too, Jan!

Familiar Weather, Familiar Music, Familiar Family

Hello once again everyone. It feels like I'm back in Crescent City today. Its been rainy and dreary all day. Brian and I did get in a good quality bike ride this afternoon, however.

Last night was the big Journey/Def Leppard concert. I'm a huge Journey fan as most of you know, but I was a bit disappointed. Steve Perry is long gone, but the replacement vocalist sounds exactly like him on the powerful songs like "Anyway You Want It," but is unable to hit the really high tenor notes on songs like "Faithfully." Those songs are sung by the drummer, who has a very good range, but does not sound very much like Steve Perry. It was still pretty cool though. Def Leppard on the other hand kicked ASS! I was blown away as I'm not a big Def Leppard fan. Holy moly they were awesome!

Mary's Dad, Mom, Grandmom, and Sister Pammie were here the last couple days. They're driving Pam out to School at Oregon State in Corvallis. It was nice seeing them again, and nice seeing Mary's Grandma since I don't think I've seen her since Mary and I's wedding. (Is "I's" correct? That sentence seems not right.) They will be back through Sept. 22nd, but I'll be in North Dakota racing my bike. Yes thats right. I'll be racing the Red River Cyclocross Challenge on Saturday Sept. 23 in Moorehead, and The Pork Chop Challenge in St. Cloud the following day. I have my cyclocross schedule pretty much figured out. There are a couple races that fall on a Saturday followed by a much more important race on Sunday, so those races might be scraped.

What the hell is this! Oh Tom. Thats some serious dabbling.

Blogger in Beta is a bit quirky. Don't change over to it until they get all the kinks ironed out.

New Look

Do you guys notice anything different? Let me know what you think.

I'm Back

Greetings faithful readers. I have returned. We now have internet hooked up at our house, so you can expect consistent blog posts. Here's whats been on my mind the last month and a half.

1. Having a house is wonderful
2. Pork tastes good
3. My wife is a really fast triathlete
4. Living in a normal town is great
5. Sampson does not like his invisible fence
6. Being "retired" isn't all its cracked up to be
7. I wish I could watch Twins games
8. Cyclocross intervals are nauseating
9. Journey/Def Leopard/Gordon Lightfoot/Bob Dylan
10. Burritos
11. My carbon footprint
12. Gluing tubulars
13. What happened to my profile picture?
14. Handlebar tape color for my cross bike
15. Heirloom tomatoes
16. Mid-term elections
17. I haven't played disc golf in many moons, yet there is a course like 2 miles from my house

Thats all I could think of right now. I'm sure I'll update again soon. If you're lucky I might even throw in some pictures.

Its been a While

I've been slacking on my blogger duties lately. Please fogive me. Mary and I are currently at my parents house in Grand Forks. We've been here for the past week, and we leave to go back to Madison tomorrow. We close on our new house on Wednesday! It's the house in the previous post. We are quite excited. There is some other good news too.

The 2006 WCA cyclocross schedule is finally posted. Can you say 2006 WI State Cyclocross Champion?

Congratulations to Heathrow Abraham on her half ironman. 18 odd miles per hour is most impressive for 56 miles.

The Honorable Revenend Josh Lanning has a blog. Read about his hatred of Del Norte Ambulance, and his love affair with a certain German liqueur here. I also gave him a coveted spot in my "Other Blogs" section. Keep it updated Josh or I'll tell Charles.

We'll be getting our stuff from storage in the next couple weeks, so the postings will be more frequent. There's all sorts of stuff going on with our lives, so I'll have plenty of material to ramble on about.

Floyd Landis is the man.

Too Much Stuff for One Posting to Handle

Hello once again all. I've actually had many opprotunities to blog lately, but I've been too lazy. Here is the much abridged summary of the last month. If anyone wants a more detailed description of anything mentioned, let me know and I'll blog in detail.

Mary and I had an uneventful trip to Bismark for Andy's wedding. Scott showed us around Missoula and kicked my ass on a bike ride. Andy met us in Medora, ND for a great 37 mile ride in the badlands. The marriage of Becca and Andy was lovely. It was nice to see old friends and catch up on things. Home in Grand Forks was great. Several mornings were spent sleeping in late and watching the early rounds of Wimbledon. We spent close to a week in GF before heading to Madison, WI for the house hunt. Mary, Sampson, and I spent the 4th with Brian, Heathrow, and Ventoux at a doggy park on a lake. The poochies had fun. We were hooked up with buyer agent and she showed us 22 homes in 2 days. Mary and I decided on a beautiful 46 year old brick ranch in East Madison. We'll probably put in an offer in the next couple days. Here is a picture.
Right now we are in Valparaiso, IN at Mary's parents house. We've been here the entire weekend, and we'll probaly leave and go back to Madison for house stuff on Tuesday. I think Mary's folk's place is my favorite place on earth, and I'm not just saying that because they read my blog. It's so relaxing here. There's a beautiful porch overlooking woods with dozens of species of birds. There is always great food and great beer waiting. Mary did a sprint triathlon yesterday. She was really strong coming out of the water, and maintained second place through the bike, but faded to 4th overall during the run. She was second in her age group though. Her time was a blistering 1 hr 10 min 3 sec.

Tour, Wimbledon, World Cup, baseball. What's there to say. A mighty fine Sunday for sports.

Possibly the Last Post

...for a while. We'll see. I'm at work now, but the computer might be packed away, and the cable disconnected before I get to blog again. I'll blog when I get to my parent's house, and hopefully soon after that I'll be blogging again on my own computer in my own house.

Here's the game plan for the next couple weeks. I come home from work Wednesday morning, and then it's last minute packing rusing around craziness until Friday morning when I go back into work. 72 hours later I come home to a moving truck and we get out of Dodge. Monday night will be spent in Hermiston, OR. On Tuesday we'll be driving to Missoula, MT and hanging with Scotty Johnson. Wednesday we're driving to Medora, ND and meeting the soon-to-be-married Dr. Dingle for a night (and next morning) of debauchery. Then its on to Bismarck for his wedding. Saturday we'll drive from Bismarck to Grand Forks for some serous R&R. We're not sure how long we'll stay in GF, but then it's on to Madison for job/home search.

There it is. 35 hours and about 2400 miles. I can't wait.

Less Than 2 Weeks!

Hi again gang. You'd think I'd have a bunch of stuff to write about with the big move coming up, but I've got nothing. We've just slowly been packing up our stuff. The other day we picked our movers. It's some outfit from San Jose that quoted us $0.50/lb with a free month's storage. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Training has taken a back seat lately. I haven't been on the bike for over a week. It will be slim pickins until we get settled, I'm afraid. I'll have plenty of time on my hands then though. I've got a hell of a base established, so it won't be too hard to hone the fitness for cross season, so I'm not worried about it. Midwest cyclocrossers won't know what hit them.

I added a few new links. Madison.com is a local information and news site. Treehugger.com is an online magazine about environmental responsiblity and modern design and whatnot. There's some cool shit about biodiesel and plug-in hybrids and stuff. Isthmus is Madison's weekly alternative newspaper. There is info on food, concerts, art exhibits and stuff.

I'll leave you with a picture of the lighthouse that's 800 meters from our front door.

LV Home

What do you guys think of this. It might actually be cheaper to go this route then to buy an existing house. I've been looking at these for years and think they're cool. Mary doesn't want neighbors, and we could throw one of these down on a nice wooded lot. There is a couple different models, a garage, and guest house. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Busy Bee

Howdy ho everyone. Sorry about the lack of blog posts, but we've been quite busy with work, training, and getting all our ducks in a row for the move. There have been many trips to goodwill and the dump. Things are getting packed up and put in boxes now. Friday the local moving company is coming by to give us an estimate to move our stuff. We'll finalize the movers after they come over since there is some company from San Jose that said they could do it quite cheaply.

Basso dominated the Giro. I think he'll win the Tour also. I'm pulling for Landis though.

A big congratulations to Brain and Heather on their wedding. There's nothing newlyweds want more then to have people crashing on there couch for an unknown amount of time. Thanks guys.

Have you seen the calf-off on Skerritt's blog. Calf #3 is scary looking.

Andy becomes a man in like 3 weeks. Thats crazy.

All Work and No Play Makes Brooks a Dull Boy

Well I've pretty much been a working fool lately. We're short a couple paramedics, so there is overtime galore. I actually had today off, and we made the most of it by traveling to Medford, OR in search of normal-town stuff that Crescent City lacks. We ended up getting some summer clothes and a sweet-ass Yakima rack with a bike mount and giant cargo box. All Yakima stuff was 20% off, and the cargo box was a returned item, so it was 20% with the additional 20% off on top of that. i'm going to install it tomorrow at work. I'll post some pics when its done.

Tomorrow I go back to work for 2 days, so no blogging until Wednesday. Thats all for tonight. I have to be at work by 5:30 tomorrow morning. Ouch.

Nice Try

You guys couldn't be more wrong with your guesses of our big announcement. No, we are not having a baby. We are moving! Long story short we are going to be homeless and unemployed, but we are getting the hell out of here. Mary and I both put in our notices at work today. The plan is to move all our stuff into storage in Madison, WI when we leave for Becca and Andy's wedding. We're going to hang out in Grand Forks for a few days after the wedding, then head out to Wisconsin to look for jobs and houses, and crash out on Brian and Heather's couch. Should be pretty interesting for a few months. I don't know how responsible it is, but we have the blessing of our familes, so we're going with it.